NOIR CITY: Detroit returns to the historic Redford Theatre September 20 - 22, 2024, with four double features hosted by FNF prez Eddie Muller. The festival opens Friday night with Victims of Sin (1951) and Night Editor (1946). Saturday’s matinee boasts Laura (1944) and Framed (1947) with Brute Force (1947) and Black Tuesday (1954) as the evening program. The festival closes Sunday afternoon with the new FNF restoration of the 1952 Argentine film No abras nunca esa puerta (Never Open That Door) and the FNF 35mm preservation print of The Window (1949). The film restoration and preservation were performed through UCLA Film & Television Archive.
Cash bar Friday and Saturday nights will feature select drinks prepared from Eddie Muller’s Noir Bar: Cocktails Inspired by the World of Film Noir. Beer and wine will also be served.
SPECIAL EVENT
OPENING NIGHT BOOK SIGNING: 5:30 PM
Arrive early! Eddie Muller will be signing copies of his three latest books, including Eddie Muller’s NOIR BAR: Cocktails Inspired by the World of Film Noir.
NOIR CITY ALL-ACCESS PASS - $55
The NOIR CITY: Detroit All-Access Pass includes a private reception with Eddie Muller on Saturday, 9/21, at 6:00 pm in the theatre lobby followed by a 45-minute Q&A in the auditorium. The pass also includes entry to all eight films, a commemorative poster, and early admission to the theatre on opening night. Buy your pass today!
Tickets for each double feature are also available for purchase on the Redford website.
NOIR CITY: Detroit: Sep 20-22
Redford Theatre, Detroit, MI
NOIR CITY: D.C.: Oct 11-24
AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center
Silver Spring, MD
NOIR CITY: Philadelphia: Nov 15-17
The Colonial Theatre, Phoenixville, PA
NOIR CITY XMAS: Dec 18
Grand Lake Theatre, Oakland, CA
NOIR CITY: D.C. begins October 11 at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center running for 14 days through Thursday, October 24. Following this year’s festival theme "Darkness Has No Borders," the D.C. lineup features 15 thematically linked double bills connecting non-English language noir films wiith movies made in the United States and United Kingdom. Highlights include the 4K restoration of Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samouraï (1967) paired with This Gun for Hire (1942) and the FNF’s latest restoration No abras nunca esa puerta (Never Open that Door – 1952 Argentina) followed by the FNF preservation print of Si muero antes de despertar (If I Should Die Before I Wake – 1952 Argentina) - the last part of a Cornell Woolrich trilogy originally planned for Never Open that Door but released as a stand-alone feature.
FNF founder Eddie Muller will introduce screenings during the festival's opening weekend, October 11–13. Film historian and FNF board member Foster Hirsch will introduce screenings October 18–20.
NOIR CITY: D.C. All-Access Pass - $200
The All-Access pass gives you admission to every screening at NOIR CITY D.C. (Oct. 11–24) at a significant discount, plus the opportunity to attend an exclusive passholder reception with Eddie Muller on Thursday evening, October 10.
All-Access Passes and individual tickets for the NOIR CITY D.C. film festival are now available on the AFI website.
At NOIR CITY 21 festival in Oakland, the Film Noir Foundation announced the recipient of 2024’s FNF-Nancy Mysel Legacy Grant — Lucas Cullen from the Selznick School in Rochester, New York. Lucas was gracious enough to supply us with an on-screen acceptance/thank-you video the audience could enjoy.
Lucas Cullen is an archivist, artist, film programmer, and writer who grew up living next to a limestone quarry in the Welsh Mountains of Pennsylvania with his twin brother, Derrick. He received a B.S. in Film, Video, & Theatre and a minor in English Language & Literature from Maryland’s Stevenson University and is currently a student in the Certificate Program at The L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation.
Lucas previously served as a year-round Assistant Manager at The SNF Parkway/Maryland Film Festival, a Programming Associate for the virtual editions of MdFF 2020 and 2021, and a clerk at Beyond Video — Baltimore’s non-profit, all-volunteer-run video library. He is a member of the Irish Arts Center.
You can read more about how the grant was originally established on the FNF Grant page. There is also an exciting essay from UCLA’s Gabrielle Norte describing her 2023 activities and what she was able to accomplish as last year’s grant recipient.
Preserved by the Film Noir Foundation in 2013 and now beautifully restored through the UCLA Film & Television Archive, Never Open That Door (No abras nunca esa puerta) is a significant example of the cross-cultural cinematic legacy shared by the United States and Argentina during the post-WWII era. Based on two short stories by American master of suspense fiction Cornell Woolrich, the film is brilliantly directed by Argentine filmmaker Carlos Hugo Christensen with extraordinary cinematography by Pablo Tabernero. ORDER YOUR COPY
Says FNF founder Eddie Muller about this recent restoration, “It is a revelation to experience the work of an all-American author, in Spanish, and rendered as well – or perhaps better – than any Hollywood adaptation of his work.”
Originally a three-part anthology of Woolrich tales, Never Open That Door was released separately from the 73-minute film If I Should Die Before I Wake (Si muero antes de despertar) adapted by screenwriter Alejandro Casona and Christensen. An exceedingly rare archival conservation scan of If I Should Die Before I Wake is featured in this publication.
BONUS MATERIALS INCLUDE:
✽ Introduction by author, film historian, and "noirchaeologist" Eddie Muller
✽ Audio commentary by author and film historian Guido Segal
✽ New documentary on Cornell Woolrich
✽ Newly recorded conversation - with Argentina's leading film archivist and cinema historian Fernando Martín Peña
The revised and expanded edition of FNF prez and Noir Alley host Eddie Muller's Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir is now available for purchase from the TCM Shop or your favorite bookseller. + READ MORE
Did you know that The Film Noir Foundation livestreams every two weeks on our Facebook page in which Eddie Muller answers questions submitted by our e‑mail subscribers? All previous broadcasts are available on our YouTube broadcast archives page.
→ Subscribe to our mailing list, so you can get your question answered.
The next ASK EDDIE broadcasts on Facebook August 22 and on YouTube the following day.
Here are the winners of the FNF's NOIR CITY Magazine #41 donation drive held August 29 - September 5, 2024:
★ Winner of the Criterion DVD of The Asphalt Jungle (1950): Larry Long, Hammond, IN. Winner of the Criterion Blu-ray release of Bound (1996): Lloyd Stires, Pittsburgh, PA. Winner of the Flicker Alley release of the FNF restoration Too Late for Tears (1949): Deanna Trainham, Fairfax, VA
★ Winner of the Criterion Blu-ray release of Thelma & Louise (1991) starring Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis, illustrator Graham Chaffee’s To Have and To Hold, and the NOIR CITY Experience book about the first twenty years of the NOIR CITY film festival: Andrew Hawkins, Wilmington, DE
★ Winner of the new release of Kino Lorber’s Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema XVII with Edward G. Robinson films Vice Squad (1953), Black Tuesday (1954), and Nightmare (1956); the Flicker Alley Blu-ray/DVD release of the FNF’s latest restoration No abras nunca esa puerta (1952 - Argentina); and a copy of Eddie Muller’s The Distance. Ruth Adar, San Leandro, CA
★ Winner of the Gloria Grahame trio: Human Desire (Kino Blu-ray Special Edition), Odds Against Tomorrow (Kino Blu-ray Special Edition), and In a Lonely Place (Criterion DVD); the Flicker Alley Blu-ray/DVD release of the FNF’s restoration El vampiro negro (1953 - Argentina); the about-to-be-published NOIR CITY Annual 16 (releasing September 2024); and the NOIR CITY Experience book – 20 years of the NOIR CITY film festival: Douglas Cablk, Oak Park, IL
★ EXTRA - Donors to receive the NOIR CITY Experience book Karen Meacham, Victoria, TX; Nicolas Consales, Fanwood, NJ; Michael Goswell, Pittsburgh, PA; Daniel Ferko, Lexington Park, MD; and Roberto Maragoni, San Jose, CA
★ The five new-subscriber winners of the five NOIR CITY Magazine back issues -- #16, #25, #28, #33, #38 -- are: Geoffrey Bickford, Freedom, NH; Jacqueline Davis, Akron, OH; Tommy Jansson, Sweden; Anthony Towle, New York, NY; and Anthony Martinez, Los Angeles, CA
★ The three new-subscriber winners of Flicker Alley Blu-ray/DVD releases of two FNF restorations -- Too Late for Tears (1949) with Lizabeth Scott and Dan Duryea and The Man Who Cheated Himself with Lee J. Cobb, Jane Wyatt, and John Dall: William Ardis, Frisco, TX; Doyle Bartlett, Ada, OK; and Danielle Johnson, Scottville, MI
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the Film Noir Foundation! A reminder that anyone who contributes $20 or more to the FNF and signs up our mailing list always receives a year's subscription to NOIR CITY e-magazine. Contributors may receive additional FNF thank you gifts depending on the amount of the donation.
The French Had a Name for It returns to San Francisco’s Roxie for the final time with 33 films, 14 films October 3-7 and 19 more November 29 – December 3. Love Is My Profession (En Cas de Malheur), based on the Georges Simeon novel, opens the festival. A middle-aged lawyer (Jean Gabin) crosses paths with a beautiful petty criminal (Brigitte Bardot) who finds herself in serious trouble. He gets her acquitted and the two start an affair. He understands her on a profound level and the two form a deeper connection than expected. However, her other lover is not as understanding, and problems ensue.
Highlights for the first half of the films include Robert Siodmak’s pre-Hollywood era Tumultes and Maurice Tourneur’s post-Hollywood Justin de Marseille. On Sunday, October 6, the festival will screen all three features comprising Raymond Bernard’s 1934 version of Les Misérables – the trilogy runs nearly five hours and will have two intermissions. Based on Victor Hugo's renowned novel, Jean Valjean (Harry Baur) attempts to escape his past as a convict who was imprisoned for merely stealing bread. The merciless police inspector Javert (Charles Vanel) hounds him. Part One ends with a bang with monstre sacré Michel Simon in A Friend Will Come Tonight (Un Ami viendra ce soir) and Not Guilty (Non coupable).
More on the program at the Mid-Century Productions website. Tickets and additional info are now available at the Roxie website.
FNF prez Eddie Muller's newest book, NOIR BAR: Cocktails Inspired by the World of Film Noir combines two of his greatest passions, film noir and cocktails.
In the words of the author, "Noir Bar offers a booze-based excursion through America's most popular film genre, pairing easy-to-master recipes with the kind of behind-the-scenes anecdotes that I like to include in my film intros and books." Some of the drinks are the ones being imbibed on screen and some are named after the films, the characters or the actors themselves. The recipes came from a variety of sources including Ernest Hemmingway and Sam Fuller. Some were even created by Eddie himself. Eddie also draws on his past as a bartender to coach you on the supplies and the techniques you will need to create these libations in your own home. The book is stylishly laid out and filled with movie stills, poster art, behind-the-scenes images, and cocktail photography. The book is available from Running Press.
Argentine director Román Viñoly Barreto's El vampiro negro (The Black Vampire) is available from Flicker Alley in a deluxe Blu‑ray/DVD edition. A virtually unknown remake of Fritz Lang's seminal 1931 thriller M, this 1953 Argentine noir is a female-centered take on the tale. + READ MORE
We are proud to announce the release of two FNF restorations as Blu‑ray/DVD combos from Flicker Alley: The Bitter Stems and The Beast Must Die, two classics of Argentine noir.. → READ MORE
Come follow us on Tumblr to indulge your passion for noir! We'll be posting daily, celebrating all things noir with exclusive stills and images you won't see anywhere else, as well as trailers, film clips, and more.
Share our posts with your friends; your love of the art form is the Foundation's biggest asset in its mission to preserve and restore classics of the genre. We are also fully committed to present our rescued films in the way they were meant to be seen: in 35mm at our NOIR CITY festivals around the country.
NOIR CITY MAGAZINE - DIGITAL VERSION
For access to the best writing on noir available today, and to enjoy one of the most cutting-edge interactive multimedia cinema publications in the world, subscribe to NOIR CITY®.
Start by adding your name to our mailing list and then making a donation to the FNF of $20 or more. View the Table of Contents for the current issue here.
Keep us posted on noir news and events in your area! Email Anne Hockens, Film Noir Foundation news and events editor.